World

By GERRY VAN HOUTEN

The dizzy pace of change in the GDR
continues. To say that the political situation
there remains volatile is, to put it mildly, an
understatement.

Prime Minister Hans Modrow’s announce-
ment that his government now favours the
reunification of Germany follows the
remarks he and Soviet leader Mikhail Gor-
bachev made when Modrow was in Mos-
cow. A few days later, he virtually dropped
an earlier condition
that a reunified Ger-
many should be
neutral.

At the heart of
Modrow’s change of
mind has been a
clear shift in East
German public opin-
ion in recent weeks
favouring reunifica-
tion. The Party of &
Democratic Social-

MODROW

ism (PDS), the successor to the old SED,
changed its position to avoid isolation from
a population seemingly intent on rushing
into reunification.

The blame for this situation rested
squarely with the old SED. Its stifling

bureaucratism, its refusal to take into
account the actual state of the country’s
economic and social life and the resulting
changes in the public’s mind created the
conditions which allowed West German
revanchism to make headway.

The Modrow government's shift is not so
much a result of growing German national-

Reunification issue in GDR elections

ism (although its role is important) as it is a
result of the belief by many East Germans
that their living standards can be raised
quickly and substantially through unifica-
tion with the FRG, one of the world’s eco-
nomic power houses.

Yet a poll taken by Der Spiegel in early
December showed that 71 per cent of East
Germans also wanted to retain socialism.

Although this columnist has not seen any
subsequent polls indicating a shift away
from a general support of socialism, it is
clear that many East Germans see no con-
tradiction between supporting democratic
socialism and reunification.

That is precisely why the Social Demo-
cratic Party (SPD) in East Germany is con-
fident that it will win the March 18 elections.
Its leader, Ibrahim Boehme, already con-
siders himself the next prime minister.

The SPD-East is receiving massive finan-
cial, material and moral support from the
SPD-West. It has also benefitted from splits
and defections from the PDS by such prom-
inent individuals as Dresden’s mayor Wolf-
gang Berghofer and Democratic Awaken-
ing, whose majority supports policies aligned
with the CDU/CSU in West Germany.

Another major opposition group, New
Forum, appears to be badly divided and
losing ground. A split recently took place
leading to the formation of the German
Forum Party which calls for immediate
reunification. New Forum itself was initially
opposed to reunification but has since
moved to a position of conditional support.
As one of its leaders, Jens Reich, said: “Yes
to reunification, not as fast as possible but

The national dialogue proposed by
GDR Prime Minister Hans Modrow
on Feb.1, which could “‘identify con-
crete steps which lead to a unified
Germany destined to become a new
factor of stability, confidence and
peace,” could include these points:

® Conclusion of a treaty of co-
operation which should contain
essential confederative elements such
as an economic, currency, transport
and communications union, as well as
the harmonization of legal provisions.

© Establishment of a confederation
between the GDR and FRG, includ-
ing joint authorities and institutions
such as a parliamentary committee,
an assembly of the lander (provinces),
and joint executive bodies in certain
areas.

Talks on GDR-FRG unity held

@ Transfer of sovereign rights of
the two states to authorities of the
confederation.

@ Establishment of a single Ger-
man state in the form of a German
federation following elections in both
parts of the confederation, convening —
of a single parliament which would ~
decide on a single constitution and a
single government having its seat in
Berlin.

Modrow’s proposals include the
prerequisite that’ the German issue
can only be solved through the free
self-determination of Germans in
both states, co-operation with the
Four Powers (USA, USSR, France,
Britain) and by taking into account
the interests of all European states.

as good as possible.”

The right-wing parties are so far divided
not only among themselves but even within
themselves. The West German CDU/CSU
headed by Chancellor Khol is making great
effort to woo the CDU-East, Democratic
Awakening and the German Social Union
into forming a right-wing electoral alliance
based ona program of reunification and the
free enterprise economy. These three parties
are also receiving considerable financial,
material and moral support from the West.

Six village residents were killed and 13
others wounded in El Salvador Feb. 11 as
the U.S.-backed neofascist government
continued its policy of genocide in the
countryside.

The bombing and rocketing of Guan-
corita by the Salvadoran air force and the
First Military Detachment was the latest
in a series of attacks on rural villages
resettled by former refugees returning
from camps in San Salvador and neigh-
bouring Honduras.

Guancorita is in the northern province
of Chalatenango, an area targeted by the
military because its suspected sympathies
to the Farabundo Marti National Libera-
tion Front (FMLN), and only a few
kilometres away from Las Vueltas, a vil-
lage twinned with the city of Windsor,
Ont.

A communique released by the El Sal-
vador Information Office in Vancouver,
and Salvaide, a Canadian aid group, said
the residents of Guancorita were recently
repatriated from the Mesa Grande refugee
camp in Honduras, the country imme-
diately to the north of El Salvador.

Recent reports quoted senior army
officers as pinning the blame for the deaths
and maimings on FMLN fighters. But
witnesses, including the Bishop of Cha-
latenango, Eduardo Alas, said air force
helicopters and planes fired rockets and
dropped bombs on the village.

Four helicopters and two A-37 planes
attacked the village from 9 a.m. to | p.m.
as part of a military operation “with the
objective of terrorizing the people and
forcing them to leave their homes and
communities,” the communique, citing
U.S. Catholic missionary sources, stated.

Throughout the 1 1-year liberation con-
flict various governments of the tiny Cen-
tral American nation have waged a
genocidal war on El Salvador’s country-
side, in a U.S.-inspired action that
included destroying traditional villages
and setting up “model” villages, a practice
similar to that used in Vietnam.

Thousands of peasants were forced to
flee the countryside and wound up in refu-
gee camps in El Salvador or neighbouring
countries. Last year, many began return-
ing to the abandoned villages in a massive
resettlement action.

The Tribune recently interviewed the
leader of one of those villages, Magdalena
Hernandez, who told of rebuilding efforts
and renewed attacks by the military
against Las Vueltas, which was twinned
with the southern Ontario city of Windsor
following Mayor David Barr’s visit to the
village two years ago. The most recent
attack occurred Jan. 10 in which three
were wounded, Salvaide reported.

The Burnaby-Kingsway riding of New
Democratic MP Svend Robinson is sim-
ilarly twinned with Teocinte, also in Cha-
latenango province.

The province was noted for its massive
peasant and student demonstrations for
land reform in the mid-Seventies, years
before the formation of the FMLN and
the war of liberation. A march in 1976 was
violently suppressed with several killings.

The attack on Guancorita follows an
earlier attack Feb. 1, news of which was
carried in an FMLN communique. It
reported that a government delegation
including vice-president Francisco Merino
and Vice-Minister of Public Security Col.
Inocente Montano visited settlements in

the province of Morazan and “threatened
the lives of the repatriated refugees.

_ “After the government delegation left,a
helicopter and a C-47 fighter plane
machine-gunned and launched rocket
attacks against the repatriated settle-
ments,” the communique stated.

Some 515 returning refugees recently
settled in the town of Meanguera, Mora-_ |
zan, and small-scale repatriations were set
to take place every four days until March
5, Salvaide reported.

The villagers of Guancorita killed in the
Feb. 11 attack were all from families
which had returned from Mesa Grande
camp last October.

The dead included a mother of three, all
wounded, a mother and her two-year old
daughter, a 10-year-old girl, and a two-
year-old girl.

Local support groups urge that telexes
be sent to President Alfredo Cristiani
(20245 RS SAL) and army chief of staff
Col. Emilio Ponce (20346), and letters to
External Affairs Minister Joe Clark,
House of Commons, Ottawa, asking him ~
to press the U.S. to cancel all aid to the
Salvadoran government.

* of

The Trade Union Group in Vancouver
reports that Vancouver Sun reporter Kim
Bolan will show slides and present a report
from her recent visit to El Salvador to
cover last December’s fighting between
the FMLN and the Salvadoran armed for-
ces. The event is at La Quena coffee house, —
1111 Commercial Dr. in Vancouver at
7:30 p.m., March 1. Live music, refresh-
ments and craft sales included.

8 e Pacific Tribune, February 19, 1990

So far, the Liberal Democratic Party
(LDPD), the National Democratic Party
(NDPD) and'German Peasants Party
(DBD) which, along with the SED, were
partners in the Honecker government, are
running independent campaigns. The
LDPD’s program, however, has many sim-
ilarities with that of the CDU/CSU spor-
sored alliance. :

Yet unless some special arrangement 1S —
made between the two Germanys, socialism
and reunification are essentially incompati-
ble because reunification on West German —
terms means capitalism not only for West
Germany but also East Germany. The Kohl _
government has made it clear that. East
Germany must move over to the’ social —
markety the West-German euphemism for
free capitalist enterprise.

Upon reunification, East Germans will
have to face a whole host of stark economic
and social questions.

Capitalist restructuring will not only
involve large-scale dismantling of public
ownership but also the outright elimination —
of the many industries whose efficiency 1s
well below that of West Germany’s. Unem-_
ployment will appear on East German soil —
for the first time in almost four decades.
And in fact, some enterprises in the GDR —
have started laying off workers in anticipa- _
tion of reunification and competition from
or takeovers by West German businesses. _

Steep increases in food prices and rents _
are also anticipated because reunification —
will probably result in the removal of East
Germany’s substantial subsidies. |

GDR social programs, some of which are
actually more advanced than those in the
FRG, are also likely to come under attack.
For example, the GDR has a comprehen- —
sive day-care system which gives virtually
every parent the right to affordable quality —
day-care. In the FRG, day care places are
much harder to find and expensive as well.

East Germans do not want to lose what —
positive gains they did make in the course of —
the GDR’s 40 years of existence. Now that —
the initial euphoria seems to be ebbing,
some East Germans have begun to have —
second thoughts and have even demon-—
strated in favour of retaining the GDR’s —
social achievements.

If these second thoughts become more —
extensive, it could have an impact on the —
election campaign.

In December, it looked like the PDS ©
enjoyed by far the widest support among —
GDR citizens who declared themselves. In _
January, it seemed as if the SPD was wellon —
the road to victory.

There is still a month to go. The political
situation in East Germany is so fluid and
volatile:that it is almost impossible to pre-
dict the outcome. What might take years in’
many countries takes only days in the
GDR. More surprises may yet be in store.»

‘y